Category: Linkage

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

BBC Radio 4’s science programme Leading Edge covers memory in the dock, and memory and ageing.

New Scientist discusses virtual autopsies and looks inside the skull of a suicide victim with a medical scanner.

One for Spanish language readers: El Pais discusses the neuroscience of religion and spiritual experience with an article entitled ‘Dios habita en el cerebro‘.

Seed Magazine discusses the role of the internet in the recent voodoo fMRI controversy with a mention of Mind Hacks.

Beauty affects men’s and women’s brains differently, reports Wired.

The Times discusses the increasing trend for children with behavioural problems to be given numerous psychiatric diagnoses.

Neuroscientists develop ‘wireless‘ activation of brain circuits, reports press release on EurekaAlert.

Petra Boynton covers the ‘Facebook causes cancer’ debacle and the subsequent unhelpful and misleading contribution from neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield who should know better.

A study on the social benefits of social networking is covered by The Washington Times. Does this mean Facebook cures cancer too?

New Scientist discusses the psychology and neuroscience of suicide.

BBC’s science programme Horizon recently had a programme on the neuroscience of dreaming which is available to view online for another month or so. UK residents only though unfortunately.

The Neurocritic has an excellent critique of a recent imaging study that was rather widely and poorly reported as ‘men think of women in bikinis as objects’.

Does mentioning sex help students learn about other stuff too, asks Cognitive Daily with coverage of an interesting study on exactly this.

Science News reports that people who hold negative attitudes toward the elderly have an increased risk of heart-related ailments later in life.

An interesting study on the role of the 5-HTTLPR gene in attention to fearful or positive images is appallingly spun by New Scientist with nonsense about ‘happiness genes’ and genetic basis for optimism.

The Daily Mash has a <a href="Daily Mash
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/facebook-gives-you-short-attention-span%2c-says…–ooh-what%92s-that?-200902251602/”>satirical take on the ‘Facebook causes cancer / rots your brain’ nonsense.

Research suggesting a possible genetic flag for brain cancer is covered by Science News.

The New York Times reports on a recent small sample size but interesting study on structural brain changes found in childhood abuse victims.

Brain scans replace job interviews within five years, reports gullible Digital Journal.

Neuroanthropology reviews a bunch of great brain books for kids. Yay!

New kind of epilepsy shakes up memory, reports New Scientist who seem to have no idea that transient epileptic amnesia is not new.

Furious Seasons is essential reading at the moment – e.g. catching AstraZeneca ordering it’s Seroquel sales reps to lie about the the drug causing diabetes. In case you didn’t know journalist Phil Dawdy is entirely funded by reader donations and he’s having a fundraiser at the moment.

First gene discovered for most common form of epilepsy, reports Science Daily.

BBC News reports that Alzheimer’s plaques may have a bigger impact on the brain than previously thought.

An interesting study on the interplay between reason and emotion in buying decisions is covered by Frontal Cortex.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

I’ve just discovered the excellent Psychology of Beauty blog.

3QuarksDaily has an interview with cognitive science philosopher Shaun Gallagher on psychotic delusions and multiple realities.

Missed this a few weeks ago: an interesting article from The New York Times on using social information on energy bills to increase energy efficiency.

Brain Hammer has just sprung into life again with a series of interesting posts.

The Colonization of Pharmaceutical Science by Marketing. Somatosphere covers the interface between medicine and marketing.

The Morning News has a great list of ‘Mindfuck Movies‘ – classics with a psychological twist. Definitely check out La Jet√©e, awesome original inspiration for 12 Monkeys.

Attendance at religious services, but not religious devotion, predicts support for suicide attacks, reports Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Dr Shock tracks the varying trends in the rise and fall of ECT treatment in Europe.

Think you’d remember the face of your torturer? Unlikely suggests a new study reported by Wired.

The Boston Globe has an article on legal wranglings and human stories related to killings related to the US Army’s ‘Human Terrain System’. Wired notes the HTS pay scale has been greatly reduced.

Five minutes with the authors of two recent influential psychological studies on TV commercials and East – West facial recognition from the BPS Research Digest.

Seed Magazine briefly covers new research suggesting oxytocin plays a key role in social memory.

Another good one from Not Exactly Rocket Science, one of the few places to correctly report on the latest propranolol trauma dampening study.

Does philosophy tells us about the world or our concepts? Eric Schwitzgebel explores the two key concepts in philosophy.

The Fortean Times has an excellent article on the surprising range of behaviour reported to occur during sleep walking.

Is genius born or can it be learned? asks Time magazine.

Neuroanthropology has a fascinating commentary on measuring basketball success with stats and why traditional stats may reflect little about a player’s ability, although it has wider implications for how we understand and measure human abilities.

The New York Times has an article on the emerging neuroscience of envy.

More ‘Facebook causes cancer’ debunking from PsychCentral.

The Monthly magazine hosts a video lecture by Norman Doidge, author of The Brain that Changes Itself. Presented by Natasha Mitchell of Mind Hacks favourite All in the Mind.

Dodgy war in Afghanistan heroin seizure statistics are subjected to the cold hard light of data by Bad Science.

Furious Seasons tackles a recent ‘scary’ editorial in the journal Current Psychiatry.

The 64th edition of the Encephalon psychology and writing carnival has just appeared on The Neurocritic and is waiting for your rapt attention.

It’s a wonderfully put-together edition and a couple of my favourites include an article on the surprising fact that the doctor whose name lives on in ‘Tourette’s Syndrome’ was shot in the back by a patient, and a piece on psychosis, dopamine and salience dysregulation.

There’s plenty more (and I mean plenty more, videos and all) in the latest edition, so head over to browse the menu.

Link to Encephalon 64.

For all your role-playing-cum-philosophy of mind needs, please consult the excellent Dresden Codak. Join an intrepid band of adventurers in the Kingdom of Qualia as they explore Plato’s Cave and battle P-Zombies in a desperate hunt for Occam’s Razor (also available in original vanilla flavour).

Link to Dresdon Codak’s cartoon.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

An interview with a psychologist Meg Barker, who studies polyamorous relationships, is published by Dr Petra.

Neurophilosophy has an excellent piece on the neuroscience of dinosaurs!

What Makes You Uniquely ‘You’? Discover magazine discusses the self and consciousness with Nobel prize-winning biologist Gerald Edelman.

The Colbert Report has a funny interview with Jonah Lehrer discussing his new book on the psychology of decision-making.

Shanghai surprise. The Guardian has an excellent personal account of an English teacher’s experience of psychosis in China.

Science News covers an interesting study on what people believe about dreams – suggesting that most people think they have symbolic meaning about their life, but mostly when they already agree with what they think.

Another trip on the same old merry go round. BBC News reports UK government’s drugs advisory panel recommends legal reclassification of ecstasy based on its relatively low health risk, government ignores them.

New Scientist looks at research on the <a href="Ecstasy's legacy: So far, so good
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126954.500-ecstasys-legacy-so-far-so-good.html”>long-term effects of ecstasy and finds a small but reliable impact on mood and cognition. Shh, don’t tell the government.

A very funny satirical news report from The Onion on Despondex, a new pharmaceutical drug for the overly chirpy.

Wired has an interview with Oliver Sacks on the unusual hallucinations of Charles Bonnet syndrome.

Ex-Labour spin doctor, now current Labour spin doctor, meanwhile psychotherapist, Derek Draper threatens legal action over people who question his psychotherapy qualifications. Gimpy has the low down. If they’re that obvious, why do you need legal action?

New York’s excellent BrainWave festival is back with a host of neuroscience talks and events.

PsyBlog has an excellent piece on how the tip-of-the-tongue effect also affects deaf sign-language users.

Horizon the BBC’s science documentary series recently broadcast an interesting but not perfect documentary on cannabis. The <a href="
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4701726/BBC_-_Horizon_-_Cannabis__The_Evil_Weed_”>torrent for the programme is online.

People in love who think about their objet d’amour are less focused on attractive faces of other people, reports Scientific America.

Science News reports that post-partum (after childbirth) psychosis is most likely in the month directly after giving birth.

Wealthy people use less welcoming and more impolite body language than poorer people, reports Scientific American

Slate has an article discussing the psychology of race and conspicuous consumption.

Research on whether personality and facial structure are linked is discussed by New Scientist.

Science News reports on a recent finding that parenting shapes genetic risk for <a href="http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40392/title/Parenting_shapes_genetic_risk_for_drug_use
“>drug use.

Research on whether the attentional blink effect can be used to test sex offenders is covered by Cognitive Daily.

The whole story of Ben Goldacre being threatened by legal action over his challenging of MMR nonsense is on Bad Science.

The 63rd edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been published online and has the latest from the last fortnight’s mind and brain hot topics.

A couple of my favourites include Ouroboros on the link between pessimism and premature ageing, and an article on the commonly discussed relationship between phases of the moon and behaviour from PodBlack.

There’s much, much more where that came from, so hit the links to get the full monty.

Link to Encephalon 63.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

The BPS Research Digest reports on how the weather can affect our memory.

Hallucinations, psychosis found as rare side-effect of ADHD drugs in children, reports The Washington Post. Study abstract here.

The New York Times reports that coffee intake is associated with a lower risk of developing <a href="Coffee lower dementia risk
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/health/research/24coffee.html?em”>dementia.

The neuroscience of acalculia, an impairment in understand number and calculation, is discussed in a feature article from New Scientist.

The LA Times reports on a new study finding children who had thimerosal based vaccines are cognitive and neurologically normal later in life. Study abstract here.

There’s a great article over at Computer World on building better CAPTCHAs. Sort of an anti-AI science as it has to require something that computers can’t easily do.

New Scientist reports that video game conditioning spills over into real life, although actually, it would be much more surprising if it didn’t.

Two teenage boys singing about CBT on YouTube. History now officially complete.

Neurophilosophy discusses a lovely study finding that touches to the face when we’re trying to understand speech can affect how we perceive what is being said.

An in-depth article on the ‘connectome‘ and the quest to understand the brain’s wiring appears in Nature.

American Psychologist published the first replication of the Milgram conformity experiments for 30 years and has lots of commentary.

Nintendo brain-trainer ‘no better than pencil and paper’, reports The Times.

Neuroanthropology has a brilliantly written piece on veteran’s experiences of PTSD and combat trauma.

Reviews of books on AI morality and embodied cognition appear in this week’s Nature.

New Scientist reports that overweight seniors who consume fewer calories show improved memory.

An interview with Edward Vul of the ‘voodoo correlations’ controversy is on SciAm Mind Matters. The latest reply from some of the ‘red list’ researchers is now online as a pdf.

The Economist reports that we are more like to procrastinate when asked to think in the abstract.

Pharmacy students also have a negative attitude towards mental health patients, reports Dr Shock MD.

Science News reports on a neuroimaging study finding that key emotion areas are involved in empathetic understanding of others’ pain.

The neuroscience of legal and courtroom decision making is discussed on SciAm Mind Matters.

ABC Radio National’s Ockham’s Razor discusses the neurological impact of viral diseases and the history of rabies vaccination.

The Seattle Times reports on the US Army’s highest suicide rate since records began.

A new paper that might give a ‘theory of everything’ for memory is discussed by Developing Intelligence.

Furious Seasons reports on a new head-to-head metanalysis of which are the best antidepressants.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

New Scientist has an interesting piece on progress in human-like interaction by machines. Check the impressive video.

UK psychologist Oliver James discusses his polemic book on the psychological effects of materialism on BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub. See programme page and sidebar for listen again.

Discover Magazine has a Carl Zimmer article on the extended mind hypothesis and technology entitled ‘How Google Is Making Us Smarter’.

Do you believe in free will? asks PsyBlog.

BPS Research Digest reports on research suggesting it’s the quality, not just the length, of sleep that is important for learning.

Articles related to topics and themes in the book Understanding Psychology are collected by Time magazine. Not sure why, but a good collection nonetheless.

The Boston Globe has an article on CBT pioneer Aaron Beck and how the therapy for depression is being updated to include the role of genetics and neurobiology.

The neuroscience of the emotional instability of <a href="
http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40028/title/Neural_paths_for_borderline_personality_disorder”>borderline personality disorder is discussed by Science News.

BBC News has an excellent article on mental health in Afghanistan.

On-the-ball science writer Jonah Lehrer’s new book on decision-making, called How We Decide is out now!

PhysOrg has an article on recent research looking at differences in default network activity in schizophrenia.

Research showing differences between men and women in the ability to control hunger is covered by Time magazine.

The Wall Street Journal discusses the emerging role of neuroscience and brain imaging evidence in the legal system.

Psychopaths ‘manipulate’ their way out of jail, reports New Scientist although the study shows no evidence of ‘manipulation’, just the fact they get parole more often. Careful with the labelling.

Neurophilosophy has an excellent write-up of a somewhat pedestrian review paper on the neuroscience of delusions after brain injury that concludes with a ‘new’ theory that already exists.

Dog On Anti-Depressants Mauls Former French President. That, is why Furious Seasons is so good. See David Dobbs’ excellent piece for several other good reasons.

The 62nd edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appeared on The Mouse Trap as a remarkably well-written guide to the latest in the last fortnight’s online mind and brain discussions.

A couple of my favourites include a nuanced look at the neurobiology and culture of addiction from Neurophilosophy and a look at a recent study on the psychological effects of the first human face transplant from Brain Blogger.

There are plenty of other great articles in this latest edition, all enthusiastically presented by Sandy’s engaging write-up.

Link to Encephalon 62.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

A third US Army ‘Human Terrain’ researcher has died after injuries sustained in the field, reports Wired.

Scientific American Mind Matters discusses the neuroscience of noisy eyeballs – a curious synaesthesia-like condition.

The BPS Research Digest discusses research finding describing wine’s flavours helps people recognise specific types.

Channel N finds a fantastic video discussion on psychiatry’s clash over meaning, memory, and mind.

Interesting study in the British Medical Journal finds troubled / misbehaving kids have worse longer term health outcomes at a 40 year follow-up.

The New York Times has a brief piece on how tragedy and loss can lead to psychological advantages.

Top 11 compounds in US drinking water described by New Scientist include three psychiatric / neurological drugs – carbamazepine, meprobamate and phenytoin – although the last two are barely prescribed these days.

The Boston Globe has a great infographic explaining some ‘try-it-yourself’ brain tricks – most of which we’ve covered previously but handy to have in sketched out.

A psychologist in Gaza takes time out from being shelled to talk to The New York Times about the effect of total war on the population. I think you can guess the rest.

New Scientist has a short piece on a new cognitive model of surprise.

The evolution of manual dexterity is tracked by Neurophilosophy.

Corpus Callosum picks up on research on the possible antidepressant effects of vitamin D.

Death redefined as lack of engagement with the world by bioethicists mulling brain death and organ donation, reports Wired. Lack of engagement? By that definition I’m dead every dead every Sunday morning.

New Scientist discusses whether we’re over-medicalising sadness and discusses the benefits of negative emotions.

A brief article in The New York Times considers the possibility of developing an anti-love potion.

Scientific Blogging on research showing that too much TV delays language development in children.

More evidence that antipsychotics increase the risk of death by heart attack is covered by Furious Seasons.

Dr Shock discusses new research on the neurobiology of psychosocial stress and depression.

Probably the best ongoing coverage of the ‘Voodoo correlations’ controversy is on The Neurocritic. Do check it out.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

A free Critical Neuroscience <a href="http://neuroanthropology.net/2008/11/14/critical-neuroscience-conference-at-ucla/
“>conference is being held in Berkeley UCLA on Jan 30th. Check the link for more information or see this jpg poster.

BPS Research Digest looks at interesting research suggesting that Tetris might work as a ‘cognitive vaccine’ against the development of trauma.

US Government claims futuristic security checkpoints have remarkably terrorist detecting capability on the basis of a Windows desktop shot and an unreleased ‘test’, reports TechFragments.

The Guardian has an extended book review article where neuroscientist Steven Rose discusses the latest theories about the human brain.

The excellent Developing Intelligence finds an interesting <a href="The Science of Mind-Reading: SVMs Extract Intentions from Neural Activity
http://scienceblogs.com/developingintelligence/2009/01/svms_decode_intentions_the_sta.php”>video on ‘brain scan mind reading’.

The New York Times profiles Emily Yudofsky who just set up a fledgling ‘neuromarketing’ company.

Children with developmental language disorder are the topic of a recent Health Report programme from ABC Radio National.

Neuroanimations is a site intended for neurosurgeons that describes various brain pathologies with, unsurprisingly, animations.

The UK is suffering a shortage of people who donate their brains after death for essential research into conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, reports BBC News.

RadioLab just broadcast another one of their wonderfully produced shows. This one on <a href="Radiolab diagnosis
http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2008/12/30/diagnosis/”>diagnosis. Excellent apart from the slightly over-enthusiastic brain scans to diagnose psychiatric disorders bit.

An essay discussing why kindness is seen in such a bad light in modern times is printed in The Guardian, looks to be an extract from a forthcoming book.

Cognitive Daily examines research on the pain killing effects of your favourite music.

BBC Radio 4’s Case Notes has a special on the sense of taste.

Neuroskeptic has an excellent takedown of much of the recent misinformed coverage about ‘why men like computer games‘.

Gregory Petsko discusses the coming neurological epidemic in a talk for TED.

Furious Seasons casts a skeptical eye over a recent American Journal of Psychiatry paper trying to explain why there’s such a large placebo response in antidepressant drugs trials in children.

People overestimate their reactions to racist comments, according to new research covered by Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Neuroanthropology publishes the list of best online anthropology writing of 2008.

A thorough and accessible academic article on Facebook and the social dynamics of privacy is available in draft form from lawyer James Grimmelmann.

PsyBlog has an excellent piece on a simple but evidence-based exercise on gratitude that has been shown to increase well-being.

Average THC content in US marijuana increasing, reports Wired.

Seed magazine has an interesting piece on how maths and sociology can predict the next big thing in music.

Developmental psychologist Elizabeth Spelke and philosopher Joshua Knobe discuss what babies tell us about cognitive development, math and racism in a video discussion over at 3QuarksDaily.

Wired has an short article on the anthropology of YouTube. Stupid title, good write-up.

Nine-month-old babies can tell the difference between happy and sad music, according to research covered by the BPS Research Digest.

Neuronarrative has video of a talk by Terry Pratchett discussing having Alzheimer’s disease.

The use of MDMA (ecstasy) to assist psychological treatment for trauma is discussed by The Economist.

Dana has an interesting piece where Eric Kandel discusses the year in neuroscience. Bizarrely, he seems to uncritically accept the ‘autism epidemic’ shadyness.

A free neuroaesthetics conference is being held in Berkley, California. My Mind on Books has the details.

Channel N has a list of its best videos of 2008.

Drug companies have agreed to stop giving free trinkets to doctors, according to The New York Times, in what seems like a token effort to make themselves more ethical.

The Economist has an interesting article discussing the politics of evolutionary explanations for behaviour.

A study on texting as a sign of cognitive recovery after loss of consciousness is covered by The Neurocritic.

Neurophilosophy has a great piece on a new study showing that the ability to recognise our own faces can de disrupted by touch.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

The Neurocritic covers an interesting case of sandwich-induced fainting.

Recession can be deadly for domestic abuse victims, reports The Boston Globe as it examines the relationship between the economy and domestic violence.

The New York Times has an obituary for the recently departed and widely respected linguist Carol Chomsky, wife of Noam Chomsky.

A spontaneous experience of a sensed presence caught on EEG. Interesting study with a great write-up from the BPS Research Digest.

New Scientist reports that US police could get ‘pain beam‘ weapons, Mega City One fantasies to follow.

A new book on traffic psychology is reviewed by the excellent Cognitive Daily.

SciAm’s Mind Matters blog has an excellent piece on how visual feedback using binoculars alters pain perception and swelling in chronic pain patients.

The endlessly fascinating Cognition and Culture Blog has a engaging piece on the psychology of perceiving cartoon faces.

Science News reports on new research that suggests disturbed sleep may be a sign associated the later development of Parkinson’s disease.

A book review and fascinating insight into the indecisiveness of William James is posted on Neuronarrative.

If you’ve been blogging the world of anthropology or you know a post that really hit the mark, you’ve got a few more days to get your nominations in for the Best of Anthropology Blogging 2008 to be hosted on Neurophilosophy.

To continue with the theme, Somatosphere has a fascinating piece about microbes and anthropology.

The 61st edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just made a seasonal entrance and has some quality holiday reading from the last fortnights mind and brain blogging.

A couple of my favourites include Cognitive Daily’s post on an interesting visual imagery experiment that addresses whether it is sexist to think men are angrier than women, and an awesome (and I mean awesome) visual illusion posted on the excellent Illusion Sciences blog.

This edition has a remarkable number of high quality article, so do wander over and have a look.

Link to Encephalon 61.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

The visually unappealing but fascinating Culture and Cognition blog has a fantastic piece on new research showing it’s possible to predict hot topics before they become hot, based on an analysis of YouTube videos.

Cognitive dissonance in action: Scientific American reports on a study finding that soldiers who have taken a life more likely to defend Iraq war.

New Scientist has more psychology of soldiering news, reporting that higher IQ WWII soldiers were less likely to survive the war – although the IQ difference is pretty minimal.

An interesting publication in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation on amnesic patient Clive Wearing, discussing whether his persistent experience that he has “awoken for the very first time” is a delusion or coping strategy.

The New York Times has an obituary of Nobel-prize winning neuroscientist and sex offender, D. Carleton Gajdusek.

New technology to monitor the brain could be used to assist fighter pilots, reports Wired.

PLoS One has an interesting paper entitled ‘Losing the Big Picture: How Religion May Control Visual Attention’.

If you’ve not caught the latest Neuropod yet, it’s a special report with highlights from the Society for Neuroscience conference.

Neurophilosophy and Ars Technica have two of the best articles on the recent research on images reconstructed from brain activity. Black mark for any one of the news outlets that drivelled-on about brain scans displaying dreams.

The Neurocritic casts a sarcastic eye over recent research on the cognitive neuroscience of crime and punishment. I’m not entirely sure whether ‘sarcastic eye’ makes sense, but you get the picture.

The ’12 laws’ of emotions are discussed on PsyBlog.

An interesting article on the cultural construction of disease is published on BBC News as they cover the curiously French diagnosis of ‘heavy legs‘.

The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed arguing we should end drug prohibition based on the US’s previous disastrous experiment with prohibition.

Dr Petra takes down the latest in the long line of fake formula nonsense.

The year in mental health is <a href="
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/17/mental-health-year-in-review-2008/”>reviewed by Psych Central.

My Mind in Books previews upcoming philosophy of mind books for 2009.

Antidepressants may damage more sex lives than previously thought, reports The Boston Globe.

Scientific American has an interesting article on visual problems caused by brain damage that has a confusing title that spuriously uses the word ‘mind’.

Lyrical and level-headed cognitive science writer Jonah Lehrer is interviewed by The New York Times about his forthcoming book on how we choose.

New Scientist has an online experiment you can take part in as part of a research project being conducted with psychologist Richard Wiseman.

Manipulating customers’ credit card repayment behaviour and profit through the use of ‘anchoring’ to set the minimum repayment. An interesting piece on the NYT’s Freakanomics Blog.

Furious Seasons reports how under-fire pharma researcher Charles Nemeroff wrote himself a letter as editor of a psychiatry journal to request an academic article praising a specific antidepressant produced by a drug company he took money from and offering himself $3,000 for his efforts. You couldn’t make it up.

Under-fire pharma researcher Fred Goodwin writes to the Trouble with Spikol blog and makes some good points in his defence.

Neuronarrative has an interesting piece on how older people may be better at filtering out negative memories than younger people.

Aren’t Spike Activity posts long these days? Compare with the first edition.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Bad Science unclothes the latest in the line of bogus formula-based adverts – this time for the naughtiness of Britney’s breasts.

Hello Google porn surfers. Enjoy the neuroscience!

Interesting memory manipulation study reported by New Scientist who include a spurious reference to the brain in the title.

Cognitive Daily has a one two punch on whether seeing objects in a scene help us remember them.

Hypothesis / conclusion confusion hits BBC News as a study on HSV1 virus in Alzheimer’s plaques somehow reported as cold sores ‘an Alzheimer’s risk’.

Neurophilosophy has a good piece on whether the brain’s fear response is culture-specific.

[A small amount of the variance in] the quality of a man’s sperm depends on [well, correlates with] how intelligent he is, reports The Economist.

Neuroanthropology is one year old and celebrates with their top 10 posts.

The 50 greatest movie drug trips are listed by Den of Geek, although depending on how you read Rosemary’s Baby it mightn’t be a drug trip at all. She could be becoming psychotic.

Lack of sleep has genetic link with type 2 diabetes, reports Science News.

Advances in the History of Psychology has an excellent piece on systematic disobedience in Milgram’s studies.

Daniel Dennett and Andy Clark write in to New Scientist to react to claims of a ‘non-materialist neuroscience’. You can guess the rest.

The New York Times explores our sense of touch: primal, acute and easily duped.

Brain-to-computer interfaces are new portable, inexpensive, but are not ready for prime time yet, reports Scientific American.

Science Daily reports on the effects of unconscious constant exposure to adverts.

Some fantastic videos of developmental trajectories in cortical thickening are discussed by Developing Intelligence.

Scientific American Mind Matters blog reports of the role of the serotonin transporter gene 5-HTTLPR in affecting how people are affected by trauma.

Women more like to hand out phone number when most fertile, reports New Scientist.

Channel N finds an interesting video on the irresitible pull of irrational behaviour.